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Stan Getz Reflections Barney Wilen Dreamtime (this is Wilen near the end of his life returning to straight-ahead jazz -- pretty nice but I need to listen more closely. DG still has a few copies in stock.)

Ben Gordon might walk anyway. He wants more money than he is really worth (of course try telling him that when Kirk and esp. Luol Deng are way overpaid). BG also makes plenty of brain farts, and is jealous of Rose. This is becoming more apparent as Rose improves (he generally won't pass the ball back to Rose). Chicago fans would give him up in a second to go after Lebron. Personally I think Rose and LeBron would be a lot more compelling -- and more watchable -- than trying to fit Dwight Howard and Lebron onto the court where their styles (to me) are so similar. But I don't think either move will happen.

If I'm reading it correctly, Red Shirt says Because Tomorrow May Never Come, which is certainly better than what I was thinking Red Shirt: May Smell Like Death. Does anyone remember Galaxy Quest, when one of the extras who gets swept along for the ride, spends the whole picture worrying about being "red shirted"? Classic.

Have to agree, especially if there's a game seven, it would take the Cavs right back in Orlando. Tonight was the Cav's big chance to level the series and it slipped right through their hands. That can't be right. The format is 2-2-1-1-1, so game 6 will be in Orlando (if necessary as they say). I don't know. LeBron clearly wants a ring, and this should have been his best chance yet, but the rest of the team is letting him down. He may very well bolt to a team with deeper pockets that can sustain a better run at it. Well, we would welcome him here in Chicago. There's remarkably little ill blood between Chicago fans and LeBron, so that could work. I'm trying to picture LeBron and Derick Rose together, but I think it would be pretty incredible.

That's awfully persuasive, and I might reconsider the Rich, which isn't on my radar at all. It is kind of interesting, since I have the Elvin Jones and Max Roach sets, so it isn't that I am against drummers (I'm just trying to prioritize really). I would agree. Get the Mobley. It's probably not that long until it times out (I think this was actually the first Mosaic I ever bought and that was a while ago), and then there will be a lot of bitter tears shed. Eric

Two really different shows on Thurs and then Sat. Thurs was Chicago Symphony - two pieces that mixed jazz and classical. Mercer Ellington finished his father's Three Black Kings suite (recorded a handful of times most recently by the American Composers Orchestra on Nimbus). Saxophonist Donald Harrison took chief solo duties. The middle section was played at a very fast clip. I still don't think orchestras can swing -- it just isn't what they are trained to do -- but the CSO was pretty game. The last section, dedicated to Rev. King, was really soulful. The second half was Mark-Anthony Turnage's Scorched, which is his reorchestration of John Scofield pieces. The piece has traditionally been played by Scofield himself, bassist John Patitucci, drummer Peter Erskine, and orchestra. I do wonder if it is one of those pieces that just couldn't be played by some other guitarist. Anyway, it is far more involved that one of those typical jazz with strings in the background. The orchestra cuts across the trio's playing. Sometimes only the guitar and orchestra play. Sometimes it is just the orchestra alone (usually then the trio plays the same tune -- considerably better). I probably would have enjoyed the trio just played their music more than Scorched but it was an interesting experiment. As it happened I had second row seats, so I could actually see the jazz trio close up, and could even watch them reading the music, again something that they wouldn't normally need to do. Still I had a good time, and it was so much better than my last trip to CSO! Sat. I was visiting my dad, and he thought we should go see a bluegrass music show. I wasn't real big on this, but agreed to go. Well, we went to this small concert venue in a former strip mall church in Thomasville, NC and saw the opening act, which was fairly entertaining, esp. the rapport between the fiddler and the guitarist which was very much in the Sonny and Cher mode. Then the main act was Scott Fore and the Hillbilly Hot Club. The lead guitarist comes from the flat picking guitar tradition, but recently has gotten really, really interested in the music of Django Reinhardt. So these guys play gypsy jazz, with just a slight bluegrass inflection on the guitars and the bass is moved up in the mix. It was really great, much more interesting than a was expecting. I told the rhythm guitarist that I hoped they would record soon. They don't have a CD out yet, but they do have a myspace page with some songs. Hillbilly Hotclub I would encourage people to go see them, though they don't seem to be touring much outside of North Carolina and Virginia so far.

Led Bib - Sensible Shoes First CD by this British group that is readily available in the US. Sounds very much in the same spirit of Acoustic Ladyland/ Managed to pick up a copy of the Complete Louis and Ella on Verve for $17, which I thought was a steal. I also picked up the 5 CD Syllart compilation from DG, and am very much digging it. One CD dedicated to Mali, Congo and Sengal each with the last two CDs being sweeper CDs. I am generally listening to more world (read African) music or pop music than jazz, but still plenty of jazz is being listened to.

Oh dear! I wonder how many sets are affected. And I fear that the bonus of healthy preorders could be largely negated by setting this booboo right. Which I'm sure they will. Well, perhaps things are so dire that they will just link us pre-orderers to a site where we can download the missing track. I'd prefer they fix the CDs but not at the cost of not being able to press any of the backordered sets.

It looks like this CD (Hard Bop Academy) is kind of hard to find. Charly also released the Blakey session backed with a Max Roach session (presumably the same one) on a CD called The Hard Drive (different from the Bethlehem CD), which is also OOP but a little cheaper used.

Well, moral (or near mortal) victories aren't particularly interesting to fans. However, the Bulls outperformed all expectations, and most people I know are fairly excited about next season, since it looks like they are back on an upwards trajectory. Getting to draft Rose from the lottery really made a huge difference, and I have to give Paxton props, his trades worked this time around. (Boston can console themselves to some degree that this would not have happened with KG healthy, so assuming his injuries aren't career-ending they should be a force next year.) What I think the Bulls proved was that no one really had to fear Boston, even on their home court, and yes, I think that was very helpful to Orlando in getting over the hump of game 7 in Boston. And yeah, it probably didn't hurt that the Celtics are a bit older and actually played the equivalent of 8+ games (well, at least it felt like that). So maybe Van Gundy owes Vinny a nice thank you card and some flowers.

I didn't link to it, since I don't go onto YouTube that often. It's kind of a blackhole of time for me, so I try to ration myself. However, I did have a little time tonight and found that there is a cottage industry of Beatles songs on ukelele, and then I was drawn in a bit to Julia Nunes and the soap opera of her life. This is sort of interesting watching fairly talented kids make music assisted with technology. I really do like the enthusiasm and showing the positive side of the Facebook/MySpace/Twitter generation. But I wouldn't bother clicking through the links unless you have patience with the young'uns. (For instance, I was beside myself this morning when a young woman would not stop texting and just walk down the subway stairs and stop blocking the rest of us from getting to work -- so that we could do something productive -- like email all day.) I can't quite get my head around what it would be like to be 20 and have grown up inside the digital revolution, and I can barely imagine what my children will be like -- probably WiFi implants by the time they are twenty. Anyway, you might find these ukelele covers of interest, though certainly not as professional as Jake Shimabukuro. Julia plays Her Majesty (music) (Many more where that came from.) Wade plays Regina Spector On the Radio (music) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8CtKFESsdQ...feature=related Julia responds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XCL6s4L1gY Wade responds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oIgp5CBzvk...feature=channel Wade & Julia play Across the Universe (music) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT6z_-niUIU...feature=related

It's sort of a novelty, but frankly even with the big band, the arrangement just seems so close to the original that it isn't particularly interesting to me. Now there is a ukelele version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps that is kick ass. That's where the unusual instrumentation really adds a new twist. (FWIW, I like the bassoons doing Watermelon Man.) I have heard some interesting Take Fives though, my favorite probably being Ozzie Hall's take on Cult Cargo -- Grand Bahama Goombay. And there are a few that put it into 4/4. I'm thinking of one, but I can't recall what it is precisely (or where I might have stashed it). There is "You Can't Wear Another Man's Hat" by The Black Sorrows, which they've renamed but still credit to Desmond and Brubeck, so it is clearly supposed to be Take Five in 4/4 and not a new composition.

Yeah, I think they will have to change the law and make this a jailable offense. It seems to me the only deterrent against such scumbags starting up a new service after another one is shut down.

Do you mean 2 different DVD releases or that the film is different in each release? My understanding is that it is the same basic film, but marginally different package (a trailer in one case, no real bonus features on the other one).

I was actually thinking about your tales when I heard this, since it sounded pretty similar. The comments on the article are pretty amusing, since they point out that FTC had thousands of complaints, but it wasn't until Schumer got personally involved that they decided to act. Pretty lame. But much lamer is that the scumbags are still making robocalls. I got a call on my cell phone tonight. I decided to press 1 -- and waste someone's time = money before hanging up. I was so close to asking how it felt to be working for a criminal enterprise, but I held off. Next time I will do it for sure.

I don't know how serious an art collector he is, but he has at least a few pieces. I know because I bought a small piece from an artist at Art Chicago, and the gallery later told me that Groening owned a piece by the same artist. So two degrees of separation right there. By the way, that is way cool that he liked your CD -- and wrote to tell you. You guys coming through Chicago anytime soon?

I only listened to disc 7, but it sounds fine (of course I am listening at work on headphones!). According to the booklet, nearly all of the source material did escape the fire (maybe stored elsewhere or on loan) with the exception of the last three sessions covering 1944-1946 (roughly the last 1/3 of disc 7). They note that this material comes from LPs and even CDR! , which has to be a first for Mosaic. They surmise that one alternate take may be gone forever. But otherwise, the vast majority of the 1930s/40s Decca material survived. Hope the same can be said for the 1950s Decca material!

Got mine today. #554! Seems pretty high for something that was still in pre-order until a couple of days ago. Anyway, I have a question. On disc 7, the third track is called "New Do You Call That a Buddy." I was checking (for reference purposes only) against one of the PD labels, and they title it "Now, Do You Call That a Buddy," which frankly makes more sense. Anyone want to weigh in on this?

There are two versions of the film itself out on DVD but only region 2 (UK and Western Europe)*. I'm intrigued enough I might order a copy the next time I place an order with Amazon.co.uk. * As I've said before, if you love film, it is worth investing in a region free player that can handle PAL/NTSC conversion.

I got interested in Mosaic a little late. Andrew Hill and Jackie McLean were already OOP. In fact, it is possible that getting deeper into these two brought Mosaic to my attention. So I started picking up some of the Hill and McLean (and Hutcherson) as singles (back when eBay was relatively new and kind of fun -- I almost never even look anymore, probably less than once a month). Suddenly I had a chance here and there to get the Hill or McLean Mosaics, but I was in a bit deep. Fortunately, all the material was eventually released on singles, so I don't regret it deeply. And indeed, I suspect that I do listen to this material far more on singles than I would if it was a box set.

Agreed, something not right about the eyes. But if you want the poster boy for plastic surgery gone bad, take a look at Kenny Rogers: http://cityrag.blogs.com/main/2006/07/they_killed_ken.html My god, what did they do to his face, esp. his eyes? Country singers are supposed to have character in their faces, dagnabit, and they sucked it all away. I think he looked pretty good -- certainly normal before -- and now What I really can't get is the floppy cuffs and the little ax he's wearing. Did he come out of the closet, and I missed it? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it would be a little mind blowing.

...that would be in storage... Well that may be, but you do have Frat Rock on vinyl clearly visible. To be fair, I have this but on cassette, since it was the kind of thing too likely to get scratched when the party got too out of hand.

I'm: You know you want to be a Vulcan, but you know deep down you're some other crazy alien. I don't even know what a Cardassian is (I guess it is Deep Space 9), but this does sound scarily accurate (at least the snob part). I guess I need to take this quiz next: http://www.quizilla.com/quizzes/1552632/wh...ove-affair-with

Been reading academic things. Most not interesting, though Immigration and Integration in Urban Communities was pretty readable for an academic book. Anyway, now that the reviews are wrapping up, I can get back to some fiction. I'm finally going to finish The Savage Detectives (a bit of a chore at this point -- I never really warmed up to it). I also am dipping into A.N. Wilson's A Watch in the Night, which seems pretty good so far. Not sure after those two. Most likely Gibson's Spook Country. On the other hand, I've been on a bit of a Japanese kick, esp. the cinema. I just reread Soseki Natsume's Ten Nights of Dream and picked up used copies of his Kokoro and I Am a Cat. I might try to read one of those before too long.

Well, keep your eyes peeled for the Cheez-It boxes. They've got a Star Trek promotion for adults where for $10 you can get a uniform. It turns out you can indeed get yellow, blue or red. I promised my wife if I do get one, I won't wear it outside the house.